Billionaire Roman Abramovich provided a cash ransom to pay for the release of
two British aid workers, a court has heard.

The billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club claimed that he paid to free Camilla Carr and her boyfriend Jon James from Chechen rebels more than a decade ago, but his former business partner Boris Berezovsky took the credit.

The couple, who later married, spent 14 months held in a cellar in the Russian republic after being kidnapped by masked men in Grozny in July 1997. Following their release, they were flown home in a private jet belonging to Mr Berezovsky.

At the time, Britain and Russia claimed that no ransom was paid but yesterday details of the negotiations emerged during the hearing in the High Court in London, in which Mr Berezovsky is suing Mr Abramovich for £3.6 billion.

The case centres on a claim that Mr Abramovich “intimidated” his former partner into selling shares in a Russian oil company, Sibneft, for £800 million, allegedly a fraction of their worth.

The court heard that Mr Berezovsky and his business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili were involved in helping to secure the hostages’ release.

The British couple, both psychologists, had been working with children in Chechnya who were traumatised by war.

Sir Andrew Wood, the British ambassador to Moscow at the time, said in a statement read to the court: “It was Mr Berezovsky who managed to secure the release of the hostages and fly them out of Chechnya and to safety.”

But Mr Abramovich gave a different version of events. “Badri was travelling to Chechnya to buy out the hostages, it wasn’t Mr Berezovsky,” he said.

“After the hostages were bought out, Mr Berezovsky arrived with the journalists, everything was filmed and shown on TV.

“Moreover ... I gave the money to Badri, he flew there and bought out the hostages.”

Miss Carr, then 40, and Mr James, then 38, of Tavistock, Devon, were flown to RAF Brize Norton on the private jet from Moscow in September 1998. They now give talks to schools and foreign military about surviving as a hostage.

Baroness Symons, the former foreign minister, said the government did not pay a ransom, and it is not known whether the couple were ever told the specifics of the deal.

Miss Carr’s mother, Helen Carr, said the couple were only told “an exchange” took place. That Mr Abramovich had paid their ransom himself was never disclosed.

She said: “We’ve never heard that, my God. Mr Berezovsky flew them out and he just said 'there is always an exchange,’ but he wouldn’t say any more.”

Mr Abramovich, 45, also denied trying to “smear” Mr Berezovsky by claiming he had links to Chechen gangsters. He told the court that Mr Berezovsky was used to protecting his car manufacturing business and dealership.

Laurence Rabinowitz QC, Mr Berezovsky’s lawyer, asked Mr Abramovich if he needed “access to people with connections to criminal gangs” who could “inflict violence and threats on people who were challenging you?”